The Scoop
MTV, the pioneer of voyeur television shows who started it all about 10 years ago with Real World and Road Rules, has produced another milestone show. In MTV Sorority Life, 6 undergraduates at the University of California at Davis are followed during a quarter. The sorority is Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, which is Jewish in tradition but accepts non-Jewish students as well. MTV paid the cash-strapped sorority a lot of $ to do this and the sorority has taken a lot of heat for it. MTV also paid for the trip to Las Vegas among other things.
The sorority has only been around since 1996 but new chapters are starting up at other campuses. I would assume that after the show finishes airing, a lot of women will want to open chapters elsewhere.
The 6 Pledges
What I originally thought was fascinating about this show in terms of reality TV is that the pledges weren’t hand picked through careful interviews and intense scrutiny as they are for Real World and Road Rules. But I have since found out that MTV apparently asked these particular women who are attending UC-Davis to start rushing. While the truth is out there, you do get a ‘real world’ similar to Real World.
The peculiar thing is that the women being followed turn out to be two hot chicks (Jordan and Candace), three average chicks (Mara, DeDe, and Amanda), and Jessica who clearly doesn’t fit in at all. Let me offer a disclaimer on the previous harsh comment. I’m talking about their looks and since this is a voyeuristic show, looks are key. It says nothing to their personality. However, look at the other side of things. If they all looked like Jessica, would anyone watch the show?
Reality
Being in a fraternity myself, I must say that the show is realistic. Well, as realistic as you’d expect from MTV. Although I have never heard of pledges living in a ‘pledge house’, the interpersonal relationships that MTV shows and conflicts that build up are actually realistic. I mean after all, we ARE watching reality!
For example, the two hot chicks get close and go party, grabbing the attention of all the boys wherever they go. The sorority sisters argue about which girls they want to become pledges, with some of them having legitimate concerns. After getting to know each other more, the two hotties confront each other on their attitudes.
MTV also does a good job of accurately portraying a lesson in role conflict: When the pledges party hard to celebrate Candace’s 21st birthday, they apparently over-do it and some of the sisters are ‘offended’ by their provocative dancing and actions.
I think that ‘offended’ is the nice way of saying they were jealous. I mean c’mon, what college girl doesn’t wanna be the hottie flirting and dancing at a club, having all the guys all over them and getting tons of attention?!
Anyhow, the sisters and pledges discuss the issue at the next meeting. When Candace suggests that they were partying hard in a showing-off kind of way, she quickly retracts the statement since this is a meeting where she is getting reprimanded for it! Becca, the pledgemaster is clearly caught in a major role conflict of looking cool in her role as a friend and being seen in her role as pledgemaster and coming across as a mean boss (she’s in charge and enforcing the strict rules). Major role conflict! This type of role conflict is soooo true and common in the life of an organization such as this one! Beautifully done – kudos to MTV and their editors!
Entertainment value
Well, aside from watching Candace and Jordan, the show is ok. I mean, it holds your attention but I get the Howard Stern phenomenon where you just want to hear/see what’s gonna happen next. I wonder what the show would be like without these two. Other than that, MTV is sure to show as much skin and partying as possible which is always entertaining.
The Verdict
My 2 cents on the show is that even though only a few episodes have aired as of this writing, it’s gonna be a winner. Why? It has what everyone wants to see! Men watch women. Women watch women. If those women are in college, making them roughly 17-22, even more people will be interested in watching. That’s part of the success of Real World which only accepts people between the ages of 18-24. Now, add to the mix the fact that this is about a sorority and there you have it, success! The fact is, everyone is interested in what goes on in a sorority house, whether you’re Greek or not. [For those not in-the-know, the terms ‘Greek’ and ‘Greek System’ refers to fraternity/sorority tradition of using Greek letters to identify which one you belong to and fraternity/sorority life in general]. Aside from looks, we see these women get into real life situations and dilemmas which prove to be informative and entertaining.
Update (September 2002)
I wrote the above review after just a few weeks into the series. The first season of the show just ended and after having watched most of the episodes, I can now add my final ‘2 cents’. Also, don’t forget to check out the Official Citynet Magazine Review of MTV Sorority Life 2.
So Jordan and Mara dropped out before initiation. I’m not surprised by Jordan’s move but Mara’s exit was certainly unexpected. In any case, here we go…
Jordan
Jordan, ahhh, Jordan. What to say about her? Well, you can really clue into to her as being the manipulative attention seeker that I suspect she is in reality. She obviously only joined ‘Sigma’ so she could be on TV. That is very clear. She spends the entire series bitching about everything she has to do and the rules of living in the pledge house. Women who join sororities are there because they WANT to be there, not because they are forced to be. I don’t think Jordan has figured this out yet.
Jordan was Amanda’s best friend when the show began. By the end, Amanda’s new best friend became Candace, as Jordan got closer to Mara. While it’s typical for women to become close friends with only one other woman (versus guys who tend to hang out in groups), it was very clear that Jordan tried on many occasions to manipulate who was closer friends with who, as well as what the pledges would be doing and where they were going. The other women caught on and it didn’t have much of an impact overall. You go girls!
I can’t understand why Jordan even had a boyfriend! She goes out partying and seems to have a great time but when she’d talk to her boyfriend, she had nothing to say. Sadly, I have seen this scenario play out far too many times. The hottie has some boyfriend just for show and not to be alone but has nothing to say to him and is miserable in the relationship. I suppose I should write an article about that for the ‘Citynet Magazine Features – Dating and Mating’ pages…
Finally, Jordan spends a lot of time defending herself on MTV message boards. While we know that MTV took weeks of filming and condensed it into just eleven 30-minute episodes, her personality clearly shows. In any case, Jordan alone has brought so much attention to the series and this review that I must thank her.
Candace
I can’t say much about Candace because she reminds me so much of my ex-girlfriend that I have a bias in favor of her! I know she looked bad having made out with a bunch of guys, including one which Amanda had a thing for, but life happens. She seems like a really cool chick overall. I’d hang out with her anytime.
Dede
Now, “‘where in the world is Dede UC Davis?”. Is Dede even on the show?! She is hardly filmed and appears here and there as a chauffeur to pick up the girls after partying. In fact, she was there for such a small amount of time that she failed her pledge exam the first time around.
Jessica
I would like to thank Jessica for teaching viewers the term ‘cockblocking’. In one episode she was slapped by a fellow pledge for trying to stop her from making a move on some guy at a club. She was then accused of ‘cockblocking’. By just trying to stop her friend, she showed that not only did she stand out by being completely different from the other pledges, but she knows little about college social life in the US.
Amanda and Mara
As the series went on, I found Amanda decreasingly attractive and Mara increasingly attractive. But, I must say that Mara does appear to have something of a bitchy side to her. Still, I’ll give both of these gals the benefit of the doubt and say that they are ‘aw-ite’.
The Sisters
The sisters in this sorority clearly worked very hard to get everything running smoothly, despite the pledges who sabotaged a lot of their work with their own egocentrism. I give them a big ‘kol ha cavod” which is a Hebrew expression meaning “all the respect” and signifies a job well done. Despite what outsiders might think, running Sorority and Fraternity events requires a lot of planning and effort. I wish the sorority success in future rushes.
Concluding points
This review was the first of its kind on the net, enhanced by the exclusive pics (which have been temporarily removed), information and all. Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback and check out the other reviews in CitynetMagazine Mag.
Links of Interest
Official Review of MTV Sorority Life 2 (State University of NY at Buffalo)
Official Review of MTV Sorority Life 3
Full Names
- Candace Hanna
- Mara McDermott
- Becca Ballon
- Leah Dansker
- Amanda Hale
- Dede Parker
- Leslie Schaffer
- Jessica Alvarez
- Jordan ******
Jordan’s last name withheld by request.
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